The Fighting 29th

All about New York's 29th Congressional District

The Washington Post has gotten a leak of the ethics investigation of Eric Massa. According to three sources, Massa engaged in a pattern of physical harassment of male aides (characterized as "groping") going back for at least a year.

Jimmy Vielkind of the Albany Times-Union tweets that David Paterson will call a special election in the 29th "as soon as possible". Paterson said that nobody's asked him not to do it.

Stlo7 at Rochesterturning has a good catch: Mara Liason at NPR said that Massa's harassment charge revolves around emails to a male aide.

If that's true, it's huge, because they will get out. But my guess is that she mis-spoke, since no other outlet has mentioned email.

Google News says that Massa's latest dramatic performance is the subject of 496 stories, but Bob Recotta's in today's Corning Leader is as good as any.

A Republican reader sent an email from the Yates County Republican Party chair, which includes this observation:

As of today, I have heard from an advocate for Maggie Brooks; and received
personal calls from Randy Kuhl, and the declared candidate for the fall election
Tom Reed. It seems that a shorter election process and a open seat has attracted
candidates who previously flatly refused to run. These late entries seem highly
opportunistic to me, and somewhat disloyal to the candidate who they have
previously endorsed, but there could be some legitimate reasons to consider
them.

My conservative reader sends another Massa booking: Massa's going on Larry King Live tomorrow.

A conservative reader sends this National Review item, which contains a Glenn Beck tweet about Massa's appearance on his show tomorrow.

Proving that he's a better man than me, Evan Dawson goes through the major claims in Eric Massa's radio rant. Evan also tells me that Glenn Beck's program is all about Massa today.

There's a progressive group who call themselves "firebaggers", which is a combination of FireDogLake, the blog where the movement originated, and "teabagger". This group opposes passage of the healthcare reform bill because it doesn't include provisions like single-payer. By the FireDogLake definition, Massa is a "firebagger". The rhetoric used by firebaggers and teabaggers on healthcare reform is remarkably similar, even though they oppose the bill for completely different reasons.

Also, the link for Massa's rant is now, unsurprisingly, dead. Of course, I saved a copy of the file. I've transcoded it (i.e., made it smaller and easier to download), and here it is (22MB MP3)

Commenter Up in Prattsburgh points to this story in the Hornell Evening Tribune, where Hornell Mayor Shawn Hogan says he won't run for the 29th seat.

An anonymous commenter points out the audio of Eric Massa's radio WKPQ program. Massa does four things in the program.

1. He describes the behavior that he thinks led to the ethics investigation.

Massa says that he was at a wedding over New Year's Eve. His wife had gone to bed, ill, and he was hanging out with the bachelors of his staff. He had danced with the bride and a bridesmaid. After he was done dancing, his staff made a few comments about what he ought to do with the bridesmaid. Massa tousled the hair of one of his staff members and said, "Maybe I ought to fuck you." Massa says he then went to bed at the hotel where the reception was held.

Massa thinks that another staff member facilitated this staff member's complaint of Massa's inappropriate behavior.

2. He identifies a real ethics issue that he thinks was the subject of another investigation.

He says that one of his staffers had sent out a fundraising letter that shouldn't have been sent out. He said he heard of an investigation around Feb 9, and believes that the investigation was due to that letter.

3. He accuses House leadership of getting rid of him.

He notes that even though Steny Hoyer says he contacted his office, he's never talked to the man in his life. He accuses House leadership of masterminding an ethics investigation to get rid of him so the healthcare reform bill will pass.

4. He launches into an impassioned denial of the accusations made by Bob Lonsberry's anonymous sources concerning alleged harassing homosexual behavior committed by Massa during his Navy service.

Massa tells a couple of Navy stories that aren't related to Lonsberry's accusations. He accuses Lonsberry of being ignorant of the fact that it is a setup.

Massa references a couple of stories during this discussion. One was by Laurie Kellman of the AP, this might be it. The other is from Roll Call, and it points out that Massa's resignation makes it more likely that the HCR bill will pass.

Massa then goes off on a long discussion, noting that he has gay staff members. He says he won't be ashamed of his actions, other than inappropriate verbal language.

"If you don't believe they came after me to get rid of me because my vote is the deciding vote in the healthcare bill, then you live in a world that is so innocent that you don't understand what's going on in Washington, DC."

The audio drops out a bit, but it sounds like Massa waved around a CAT scan that shows some tissue that can either be a tumor or scar tissue.

He says "a pox on both parties", and that if he ever runs again, it will be as an Independent.

Saying this is a must-listen is the understatement of four years following Massa.